Intermountain Healthcare Fidelis Cancer Center
PROJECT NARRATIVE
After a flood damaged the existing cancer center at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Intermountain leadership decided to rethink their longterm needs and approach to cancer care in Denver. The BA team was engaged to review the existing building and assess workflow, room function, and compliance with FGI and clinical standards. It became apparent that the cost to upgrade and retrofit the existing building would quickly surpass the cost to build out a new cancer center in the Fidelis Building, located less than a quarter mile from the existing cancer center.
Split between two floors, the new center includes over 30,000-square-feet for integrated care, including clinics, infusion, USP 797/800 pharmacy, rehab, women’s imaging, breast surgery clinic, financial counseling, conference/meeting spaces, and offices. During the design process, the team conducted patient surveys to understand their community, social, and emotional needs. The goal was to incorporate their needs into the design process, including social interaction, privacy, thermal comfort, and choice.
The design team presented a series of infusion bay options—including private, semi-private, paired, and an option they referred to as “the neighborhood”—with the goal of reinforcing patient choice and independence while balancing staffing ratios and visibility.
Fitting a USP 797/800 pharmacy inside an operational medical office building was no small feat. The team needed to coordinate exhaust duct routing to the roof, in addition to a new dedicated AHU located inside the building, as well as considering installation access, noise, vibration, and maintenance—all in an effort to give maximum air balance control within the pharmacy.
This project included in-depth conservations with Intermountain Health’s design and construction team leaders to blend their medical group’s clinic standards into the cancer center clinical pod design. The design team was able to achieve this goal and, along the way, create an update to the interior design finish standards for the entire medical group.
